Psychonauts

blend of fairly average platformer and fantastic story/setting, and absolutely worth playing just for the amazing cast of characters and the bonkers world they inhabit.

Pros: This game is a LOT of fun. The voices and general wacky world is hilarious and there are a lot of hidden meanings in the "mental" portions of the game. You are generally free to explore and it's fun to try to figure out how to get to different places in the game. Cons: This is an obvious console port and the clunky controls on a PC detract from the experience CAMERA ANGLES, CAMERA ANGLES, CAMERA ANGLES - The brutal camera angles and control of the camera are the one truly frustrating part of this game. You often will not see where you are going or need to go because of the silly camera implementation. Overall this is a game I recommend.

Tim Schafer's first work with his development studio Double Fine, Psychonauts is excellent for the most part, but is let down by a few design choices and somewhat poor platforming controls. The overall concept is quirky, unusual, and brilliant-you play as Razputin, a runaway from the circus who attempts to unravel the mysteries surrounding Whispering Rock Summer Camp, a training ground for young psychics before his parents arrive to take him home. Along the way, Raz meets a full cast of interesting and entertaining characters, including a pair of psychic secret agents (the titular Psychonauts), the rest of the erratic and outrageous campers, and a host of other miscellaneous lunatics that all add an unbelievable amount of character to the game. The game takes place in two environments: the summer camp and locations around it, which function as a sort of hub world and lovingly designed platformer-style worlds, each of which takes place within the minds of one member of the cast. To avoid spoilers I won't get into details about each of the levels, but it's obvious that an amazing amount of love and care went into each one, further adding to the game's fantastic atmosphere. Unfortunately, while solid enough overall, Psychonauts can be somewhat lacking in the gameplay department. The game is a platformer for the most part, which makes the occasionally sticky controls and difficult-to-control camera more of an issue than they would be otherwise. Of special note here is the last level of the game, which is controller-smashingly frustrating at times. Moreover, two late-game collect-a-thons (Collecting the last of Raz' powers and gathering enough "money" to purchase some items necessary to finish the game) break up the game's flow and feel like they were added to artificially lengthen gameplay time. Lastly, the game was obviously developed with consoles as the lead platform-the default PC control scheme is unintuitive and cumbersome. I strongly suggest playing the game with a controller for that reason. Overall, Psychonauts is a breath of fresh air and a fantastic departure from modern mainstream gaming. Its control and gameplay design issues don't prevent the game from being absolutely worth the price and a solid addition to any gamer's library. If you haven't played through the game before, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy.

Out of all the games I've played, this one might be the hardest to categorize, just because of how many genres it manages to seamlessly combine. It's part comedy, part platformer, part action-adventure, and part puzzle game, and yet surprisingly, all of them are well-executed and make for a very fun experience. Probably the strongest portion IS it's humor. Combined with great characters and the quirky setting of a psychic summer camp and conspiracies of world domination, its story will have you grinning the whole way through. For the most part, the rest of the gameplay is very good as well. The puzzles are creative and get you thinking, but aren't vague or obtuse, so you won't have to shut off the game every five minutes to check out a walkthrough like some point-and-click games. The platforming is also fun, and is at its best when you explore the different levels by combining Raz's psychic abilities with his acrobatic ones. The game isn't flawless though. During these platforming sections the camera can occasionally get in your way, something that ranges from mildly annoying to hair-tearingly frustrating (including one VERY aggravating portion towards the end that you will fail time and time again at just fighting the camera). But the main problem for me is that the game is extremely cut-scene heavy, many of which are unskipable. I get that the game is story-driven , but I still feel like most of these cut scenes could have been presented as scripted events, and it gets annoying (on one stage in particular) when the control is yanked from you every five minutes or less for yet another cut scene. Also, most of the boss fights are disappointingly easy, but now I'm just nitpicking. Overall, regardless of these flaws, I still highly recommend this to any gamer looking for a good platformer or comedy game. On a side note, I would have given it 4.5 stars if I could, but the problems are significant enough to prevent me from giving it the full 5.

Psychonauts è un ottimo titolo da tutti i punti di vista (narrazione, come avventura grafica, come puzzle game e infine come console platform), ma sfortunatamente proprio la parte console platform soffre di tutti i difetti di questo genere (medievil 2 ad esempio)... è difficile fare salti precisi, bisogna rifare spesso dei pezzi e il tutto dopo un po' diventa noioso (in particolare quando i comandi non rispondono o la camera impazzisce). Posso solo dire che non sono stato troppo duro con Psychonauts perchè l'unico platform 3d riuscito che conosco è trine 3 (secondo me grazie alla camera fissa). Sono però sicuro che per molti (in particolare per i giocatori console del passato) la parte platform sia fatta molto bene. Detto questo tutto il resto è davvero interessante... i poteri sono divertenti da utilizzare, è divertente esplorare il mondo di gioco, i dialoghi sono sia interessanti sia divertenti, e la storia tiene incollati fino alla fine. La parte che mi è piaciuta meno è il finale (un boss dopo l'altro senza tregua con due livelli platform a tempo davvero fastidiosi)... La parte che mi è piaciuta di più è l'inizio, da segnalare anche il livello del torero/artista davvero ben riuscito. Su mac gira benissimo ma sfortunatamente è impossibile usare alt+tab quindi se vi bloccate dovrete probabilmente ripetere un pezzo (si può salvare ovunque ma in realtà si viene teletrasportati solo in un punto vicino). La traduzione italiana che si trova su internet è fatta benissimo e funziona perfettamente. English: Psychonauts is a great title from all points of view (narrative, as graphical adventure, like puzzle game, and finally as a console platform), but unfortunately precisely the part platform console suffers from all the defects of this kind (medievil 2 to example). it is difficult to make precise jumps, you have to redo often whole pieces and everything after a while 'becomes boring (especially when the controls do not respond as you would like or camera goes crazy).